Erosion-oxidation of pressure vessel steel P265GH

The behaviour of pressure vessel steel P265GH was studied in a centrifugal high-temperature erosion apparatus under impacts by silica (SiO2) particles moving at velocities ranging from 20 to 60 m s-1 and contacting the surface at the angles of 30° and 90°. Besides particle impacts, the steel was simultaneously exposed to air and elevated temperatures of 350 and 450°C. For comparison, the tests were also performed in the absence of erodent particles. After the tests, the material behaviour was evaluated in terms of occurred weight changes and surface characteristics, the latter ones of which were investigated by using, for example, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). In the analysis of the test results, special attention was paid to the composition and microstructure of the used silica particles and how these influence the elemental distribution on the exposed surfaces. The results show that the particle impacts introduce weight losses that follow a ductile angle-dependency, i.e., relatively greater weight losses at the shallow than at the steep impact angle. Although evident oxide scales developed on the surfaces at the test temperatures, they did not provide the steel with protection against particle impacts. Particle debris was detected embedded in the surfaces particularly under impacts at 90°, with softer particle constituents being preferentially deposited. These results are discussed in terms of the erosion-oxidation behaviour of the steel and the consequences of the heterogeneous erodent particle quality

CFD study of fluid flow changes with erosion

For the first time, a three dimensional mesh deformation algorithm is used to assess fluid flow changes with erosion. The validation case chosen is the Jet Impingement Test, which was thoroughly analysed in previous works by Hattori et al. (Kenichi Sugiyama and Harada, 2008), Gnanavelu et al. in (Gnanavelu et al., 2009, 2011), Lopez et al. in (Lopez et al., 2015) and Mackenzie et al. in (Mackenzie et al., 2015). Nguyen et al. (2014) showed the formation of a new stagnation area when the wear scar is deep enough by performing a three-dimensional scan of the wear scar after 30 min of jet impingement test. However, in the work developed here, this stagnation area was obtained solely by computational means. The procedure consisted of applying an erosion model in order to obtain a deformed geometry, which, due to the changes in the flow pattern lead to the formation of a new stagnation area. The results as well as the wear scar were compared to the results by Nguyen et al. (2014) showing the same trend. OpenFOAM⃝R was the software chosen for the implementation of the deforming mesh algorithm as well as remeshing of the computational domain after deformation. Different techniques for mesh deformation and approaches to erosion modelling are discussed and a new methodology for erosion calculation including mesh deformation is developed. This new approach is independent of the erosion modelling approach, being applicable to both Eulerian and Lagrangian based equations for erosion calculation. Its different applications such as performance decay in machinery subjected to erosion as well as modelling of natural erosion processes are discussed here

Pitting corrosion on highly alloyed stainless steels in dilute sulphuric acid containing sodium chloride

Stainless steels are widely used in industrial assets and equipment. Despite their good corrosion resistance under a wide range of operating conditions, there is the possibility of pitting corrosion in the presence of chlorides. However, very few studies have identified the safe operating conditions for various high-alloyed stainless steel grades by comparing their pitting susceptibility. In this research, the susceptibility to pitting attack of five stainless steels with austenitic and duplex microstructures was examined in dilute sulphuric acid solution with varying amounts of NaCl at the temperatures of 50, 90 and 130◦C. Based on potentiodynamic polarization scans, none of the test materials underwent pitting corrosion at 50◦C, but differences in susceptibility to pitting attack were clear between the test materials and NaCl concentrations at the temperature of 90◦C, and further tem- perature increase facilitated uniform corrosion. 28-day immersion tests at 90◦ C confirmed the pitting suscepti- bility of duplex grades 1.4662 (PREN 33) and 1.4462 (PREN 35) in the presence of at least 2000 mg/L NaCl, but not the susceptibility of a corresponding austenitic grade 1.4539 (PREN 34). The grades 1.4547 (PREN 43) and 1.4410 (PREN 44) were not susceptible to pitting corrosion under any of the studied conditions. The results from materials microstructural and electrochemical characterization are presented and discussed in this paper

Effect of temperature and concentration of precursors on morphology and photocatalytic activity of zinc oxide thin films prepared by hydrothermal route

Zinc oxide (ZnO) is an important semiconductive material due to its potential applications, such as conductive gas sensors, transparent conductive electrodes, solar cells, and photocatalysts. Photocatalytic activity can be exploited in the decomposition of hazardous pollutants from environment. In this study, we produced zinc oxide thin films on stainless steel plates by hydrothermal method varying the precursor concentration (from 0.029 M to 0.16 M) and the synthesis temperature (from 70 °C to 90 °C). Morphology of the synthesized films was examined using field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and photocatalytic activity of the films was characterized using methylene blue decomposition tests. It was found that the morphology of the nanostructures was strongly affected by the precursor concentration and the temperature of the synthesis. At lower concentrations zinc oxide grew as thin needlelike nanorods of uniform length and shape and aligned perpendicular to the stainless steel substrate surface. At higher concentrations the shape of the rods transformed towards hexagon shaped units and further on towards flaky platelets. Temperature changes caused variations in the coating thickness and the orientation of the crystal units. It was also observed, that the photocatalytic activity of the prepared films was clearly dependent on the morphology of the surfaces.publishedVersionPeer reviewe